Free Republic

A couple of weeks ago, on a leisurely Sunday afternoon, 40 people gathered at a church in Washington Heights for a show-and-tell session sponsored by the New York City Preppers Network. One by one, they stood in front of the room and exhibited their “bug-out bags,” meticulously packed receptacles filled with equipment meant to see them through the collapse of civilization. Onto a folding table came a breathtaking array of disaster swag: compasses and iodine pills, hand-cranked radios and solar-powered flashlights, magnesium fire-starters and a fully charged Kindle with digital road maps of the tristate region. Many of the items...

Street clashes killed at least 30 people in Egypt's Port Said on Saturday, after 21 supporters of a local soccer club were sentenced to death over a bloody stadium riot in the canal city, AFP reports. The violence came a day after nine were killed in protests against President Mohammed Morsi on the second anniversary of Egypt's uprising against predecessor Hosni Mubarak, the worst crisis he has faced since taking power in June. Trouble erupted just minutes after a Cairo court handed down the sentences against fans of Port Said over the deaths of 74 people during post-match violence last...

SALT LAKE CITY - David Morales was on a Greyhound bus near Las Cruces, N.M., when Border Patrol agents stopped the bus for a routine check. Morales, 21, rose up and informed his fellow passengers of their rights. That, he says, landed him in detention for nine hours before immigration agents decided to cut him loose. The experience, he says, was his inspiration for developing an app to inform undocumented people of their rights in a wide array of scenarios ranging from traffic stops by city police officers to a workplace raid by Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents. "I can't...

As Israelis in the town of Netzer in Gush Etzion attempted to participate in a tree-planting event organized by Women in Green, a mob of Arab thugs and international anarchists rioted, attempting to physically prevent the tree-planting from taking place. After an extended face-off, with a major riot nearly breaking out, the Arabs and anarchists left the planting site. .....

The Onion strikes again. A radio host fell for a fake story from the satirical website that showed a doctored image of a “drone flyover” on President Barack Obama’s inauguration day.

<p>The attacks on the family are the latest in a series of violent incidents in which Latino gangs targeted blacks in parts of greater Los Angeles over the last decade.</p> <p>Compton, with a population of about 97,000, was predominantly black for many years. It is now 65% Latino and 33% black, according to the 2010 U.S. census. But it's not only historically black areas that have been targeted.</p>

Vatican City, Jan 25, 2013 / 04:04 pm (CNA/EWTN News).- Pope Benedict has written two new directives modifying the departments in the Roman Curia which are responsible for catechesis and the formation of priests throughout the Church. The Pope gave the Pontifical Council for Promoting the New Evangelization the task of “caring for...the relevant instrument of evangelization that the Catechism, along with catechetical teaching in all its diverse forms, represents for the Church in order to bring about a more organic and effective pastoral outreach.” “This new pontifical council will be able to provide the local churches and the diocesan...

Dan from Squirrel Hill's Blog If President Obama goes “skeet shooting all the time,” then why does Google have exactly zero pictures of it? President Obama recently told the New Republic:“Up at Camp David, we do skeet shooting all the time.”If that’s true, then why does Google have exactly zero pictures of Obama skeet shooting?

Freshman state Rep. Giovanni Capriglione, R-Southlake, filed a bill on Thursday that would allow concealed handgun license holders to carry weapons on college campuses. The measure is similar to a bill filed by state Sen. Brian Birdwell, R-Granbury, one week earlier. Campus carry has been a controversial topic for multiple sessions and has come back into the spotlight after an argument on a Lone Star College campus in North Houston on Monday led to gunfire and multiple injuries. For opponents of campus carry, the takeaway is that more guns lead to more harm on otherwise safe campuses. For supporters, such...

The Moocher King's second inauguration was pretty much as terrifying as was the first one. He promised to keep piling on the entitlements, cheering his constituency and further enraging the shrinking middle class that will have to pay for them, despite promises to put the entire burden on 'the rich'. "We must make the hard choices to reduce the cost of health care and the size of our deficit. But we reject the belief that America must choose between caring for the generation that built this country and investing in the generation that will build its future," Obama said. They...

Egyptian President Mohammed Morsi declared a 30-day state of emergency, Sunday night, in the cities of Port Said, Suez and Ismailiya, in response to violent anti-government demonstrations around the country. The state of emergency includes a curfew... Morsi said, "The attacks we have been seeing for the last few days are unacceptable actions against Egypt and the revolution, and I will fight the attackers with utmost power and determination."

President Obama declares that, “We are not at war with Islam,” but the Islamic Quran and Sharia command that Muslims conduct jihadist war against non-Muslims to spread the religion and Sharia law worldwide. The question is why Obama maintains we are not at war with Islam, when Islam is clearly at war with the U.S.? President Barack H. Obama proclaims that the U.S. is not “at war with Islam.” The president then proceeds to draw an imaginary line between “moderate” and “radical” groups of Muslims that does not exist within the reality of Islamic “theology.” Obama claims that that there...

The Gospel for this Sunday is continued next week and so perhaps we can await an analysis of it until then. The First reading from Nehemiah 8 is a wonderful meditation on the glory and wonder of the Word of God and it deserves our attention.The background of the text is that Israel, in 587 BC had been conquered by the Babylonians and the survivors of that war were led into exile in Babylon. After 80 years the Persians conquered the Babylonians and Cyrus, King of Persia, permitted the Jews to return to the Promised Land. Sadly, only a small...

CAIRO Egypt's president declared on Sunday a 30-day state of emergency and night curfew in the three Suez Canal provinces hit hardest by the wave of violence that has left more than 50 dead in three days. Angry and almost screaming, Mohammed Morsi vowed in a televised address that he would not hesitate to take even more action to stem the latest eruption of violence across much of the country. But at the same time, he sought to reassure Egyptians that his latest moves would not plunge the country back into authoritarianism. "There is no going back on freedom, democracy...

Dan from Squirrel Hill's Blog Obamacare supporters are shocked that its opponents’ predictions of job destruction are coming true One interesting thing about Obamacare is that even though it became law in March 2010, its main provisions were written so as not to take effect until after the 2012 Presidential election. This was no accident. Long before Obamacare was passed, its opponents were predicting that it would reduce employment, and that this would be especially harmful to low wage workers. For example, in September 2009, the Heritage Foundation wrote:“Mandates Kill Jobs and Lower Wages: The result of such a tax penalty...

know it's premature. But as I watched President Barack Obama take the oath of office for a second term on Monday, I couldn't help thinking that four years from now, it'll probably be President-elect Marco Rubio's turn. Why do I think Rubio is likely to be our next president? Because the Florida senator has the vision, charisma, brains, and communications skills to fix the problems that will no doubt linger long after Obama has returned to Chicago. Of course, this is not an entirely original observation. Four years out, Rubio is already at the top of what many consider to...

Grammy Award winning singer-songwriter Steve Vaus throws down the gauntlet; writes and records gun owner's 'Anthem' for the 2nd Amendment and Gun Rights, called 'COME AND TAKE IT!'

1962 Sunday Missal Mass Readings/Propers for Septuagesima Sunday Colors: Purple INTROIT Psalm 17: 5-7 The sorrows of death surrounded me, the sorrows of hell encompassed me; and in my affliction I called upon the Lord, and He heard my voice from His holy temple. -- (Ps.17. 2, 3). I will love Thee, O Lord, my strength: the Lord is my firmament, my refuge, and my deliverer. V.: Glory be to the Father . . . -- The sorrows of death surrounded me . . . COLLECT - Graciously hear, we beseech Thee, O Lord, the prayers of Thy people, that...

President Barack Obama said if he had a son, he would have to think "long and hard" before he let him play football and suggested he--along with other football fans--watches football against his conscience. "I'm a big football fan, but I have to tell you if I had a son, I'd have to think long and hard before I let him play football," Obama said. In an interview with the left-of-center New Republic, Obama said football will "probably change gradually to try to reduce some of the violence" and that may allow fans to not have to "examine our consciences...

The federal background check system for gun buyers is porous, ineffective, and hampered by a lack of cooperation from the states. And that’s what the system’s supporters have to say. For critics, it’s much more than that. They warn that even if the system can be perfected — and there’s growing consensus in Washington, D.C., that the time has come to authorize certain basic and largely non-controversial improvements — it will do nothing to reduce gun violence. President Barack Obama called on Congress to implement universal background checks as part of the gun-control proposals he unveiled in the wake of...